Gramercy Park Hotel Settles ADA Violations

MANHATTAN (CN) – New York’s famous Gramercy Park Hotel paid $30,000 to settle a lawsuit, filed simultaneously, over its failure to accommodate people with disabilities.      The hotel must add lobby phones for hard-of-hearing guests, widen room doorways, make the entrance door easier to open, add a ramp between the roof club rooms and the gardens, and make other modifications.     Gramercy currently has eight rooms designated for guests with mobility impairments, but prosecutors said the hotel’s best rooms do not have these features. With the settlement, the hotel has 15 months to retrofit two deluxe and penthouse, substituted for two of the eight regular loft rooms that are accessible to the disabled.     Banks Brown with McDermott Will & Emery represented the hotel and its owner and operator, GPH Management and RFR Hotel Group.     Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman oversaw the prosecution.